Remote control devices and other mobile computing devices are becoming increasingly important components of modern home entertainment and computing systems. For example, an increasing number of electronic devices are offering speech recognition capability as a control interface to the device. A common challenge in such systems is reliable recognition of spoken commands in the presence of background and other ambient noise. Reliable speech recognition by a remote control or other mobile computing device in a home entertainment system is made particularly difficult by the possible presence of programming dialog before, after or concurrent with a spoken command. Consequently, a need exists for improved speech recognition techniques.
Despite the evolution of home entertainment and computing systems, many problems persist. For example, variations in volume levels within television programming can prove frustrating to a viewer. In particular, the volume of programming content that may be of less interest to the user, such as commercials, often exceeds that of the primary programming. Many users find the volume levels during commercials agonizingly loud. Furthermore, a pleasant user experience is becoming an increasingly important consideration when designing modern systems. Consequently, a need exists for improved acoustic management.
In many instances, it may be helpful for a home entertainment or other computing system to know the current position of a viewer or user of the system. For example, it may be particularly useful to know a distance between a viewer and a display. Furthermore, with knowledge of the viewing distance, the display size, and any number of other relevant parameters, a modern entertainment or computing system may be capable of, for example, adjusting one or more entertainment parameters to enhance the entertainment experience. While direct measurement of the viewer's position relative to the display is possible using a stereo vision calculation, biometric measurements or other techniques, obtaining reliable measurements remains difficult. Furthermore, every home entertainment user has experienced the frustration of a misplaced remote control. Current entertainment and computing systems fail to adequately aid users who cannot locate one or more components of the system. Consequently, a need exists for improved acoustic location management. Accordingly, there may be a need for improved techniques to solve these and other problems.